Massara: “We need to store our good memories and start battling hard, we’ve set the objective of improving daily”

Frederic Massara has spoken to MilanTV on the first day of training.

Today the Rossoneri kicked off the pre-season preparations today at Milanello and they do it as the Champions of Italy for the first time in 11 years.

Director of Sport Ricky Massara, who at the end of last week extended his contract with the Diavolo, spoke to MilanTV:

I want to return to your facial expression at the end of last season’s Lazio-Milan. Director, we all felt the same that evening…
“Well, we were  all exhausted emotionally after such a thrilling game and most of all, we were all aware of how that match could represent a key moment for the Scudetto race. We all sensed it, especially our players, who were good at making that triumphant run which made us all rejoice last season.”

We are surrounded by lots of happy fans. Ultimately, in football, you work hard and put in a lot of effort in every aspect to get this kind of satisfaction, right? To gave lots of fans around us wearing the same shirt and being happy together…
“We work hard to generate emotions for the fans and that’s our prime objective which we must continue doing. There’s an incredible amount of passion surrounding the team which also helped to push on the guys to do wonderful things, not just regarding last season but for the past 2.5 years. We have to continue like this, start all over. We have to forget… actually, store, our good memories and start battling hard because it’ll be tough right from the first game but we want to do well again and be competitive. We want to be even more competitive in the Champions League and the next season will give us more good returns.”

Director, our way of thinking hasn’t changed. We won the Scudetto last season and we are very happy, but we feel a sense of consistent growth that must persist, right?
“Well, this journey can continue because I believe our players still have lots of margin of growth. This is something we are aware of and our players have to put it into effect thanks to the coach and our staff. I’ll also add that we have restored a sort of normality regarding a competitive Milan side. We must remember that the history added to by our guys requires us to think ambitiously and to focus on being competitive in all competitions, right from the start. So, as I have said, there’s a lot of enthusiasm and a great desire to restart and do well.”

Last season coach Pioli was very pumped up in pre-season which is the most beautiful thing in the world. He says: ‘We have to improve on the second half of the season, we racked up 36 points in the 2020/21 season’. We actually improved on that with 44 points last season. Director, the aspect which we have to improve on this season… you previously hinted to the Champions League. Is that the aspect to improve on or is there something else Ricky Massara wants to see improved next season?
“We have set the objective of improving every day. Improving our quality, the team’s maturity and awareness of our strength. We also have to face every game with the certainty that if we want to truly improve, we’ll have little or no room for mistakes. It’ll be a tougher journey this time, all our opponents are preparing with a different mindset and we’ll have to be ready to overcome difficulties, knowing that we’ll have to battel hard but with satisfaction, too.”